This is the first of a five-part series where I’m going to walk you through the five steps of transformation (specifically business transformation) and share why each step is essential.
Why is transformation important? Well, if you’re trying to do any sort of “uplevel” of your business including breaking a financial ceiling (like build a six-figure or seven-figure business) or becoming more successful with your business, you’re looking for a transformation.
And, if you’re anything like me, you’re likely impatient that your transformation hasn’t happened yet. Which is why I thought this little five-part series would help, because along with walking you each step, I’m also going to show you what it looks like with a real world business example and explain why it’s important not to rush your transformation (as much as you may want to).
Honestly, I feel like one of the biggest mistakes I see is entrepreneurs and business owners trying to rush this process. Not only is it a waste of time (because it’s not actually possible to rush it if you truly want to transform) but by trying to force something to happen before it’s ready, you’re likely to simply delay things.
Now, that’s not to say the process of transformation needs to take years and years. What I AM saying is it needs to take as long as it needs to take–that may be a day, a week, a month, a year or five years. And, if you try and shortchange it and force something to happen that’s not ready to happen, not only won’t it work but it will likely backfire on you.
So, let’s talk about step 1 which is pause.
Pause basically means you have to stop. Stop doing something so you can create space to birth something new. Maybe that looks like stopping a program or stopping a marketing strategy.
In my case, it looked like stopping my blogging.
The year was 2016. It was sometime in the summer, maybe July or August, and it finally got super clear to me I needed to take a pause and not blog.
This was a big deal. I had been regularly creating content and posting on my Michele PW blog for over a decade. My blog was old and established and it had a lot of really powerful backlinks.
It also wasn’t giving me the results I wanted. And, after over 10 years of blogging, I decided I was doing something wrong and the only way I was going to figure it out and come up a with a plan to move forward, was to stop blogging.
So, I did.
Now, if you’re like me, you might be thinking to yourself “why do you need to pause? Why can’t you keep going with whatever it is you’re doing and start something new at the same time? Why can’t I do it all?”
I personally was very resistant to the pause, so let’s go back to my blog and see the results of pausing.
Because I paused on my blog for six months, I was able to use that time I would have spent writing content on other things, such as writing a free book “How to Start a Business You Love AND that Loves You Back.” I didn’t even get the idea for this book until the beginning of September, and I was able to write it and launch it in a couple of months. I know this wouldn’t have been possible if I still had been creating content for my other blog.
I also was able to finish the current book I was working on — my “Love-Based Money and Mindset” for a December launch. Would I have gotten it done in time if I had still been blogging? Maybe … or maybe not.
Lastly, I also used the time to start my podcast, which is also called “Love-Based Money” and I launched that in January. It’s highly unlikely this would have been launched in January if I hadn’t stopped my blog.
So, to recap, let’s look at everything I accomplished the last 6 months of 2016 because I took time off from my current blog:
- I wrote and published a new free book.
- I launched my fourth love-based book.
- I launched my podcast.
Now, let’s flip it and look at what would have happened if I kept blogging and decided I could “figure it out” while I was blogging.
Not only would those other projects been delayed or never done, I would have instead spent 6 months creating content for a blog I eventually would decide wasn’t worth saving.
I would have wasted my creative energy on something that was destined to end.
Even worse, I may very well have delayed ending that blog BECAUSE I would have continued to put the time and energy and creative life into it. I may have felt it was too painful to move on and start fresh, so I may have continued to force something that was ready to be complete.
And then, where would I be right now? Not where I currently am.
But, because I paused and left it alone to sit for awhile, I was able to be more objective. I gave myself space to hear the advice of my inner wisdom. And, when I was ready to start my new lovebasedbiz blog, I was ready.
So, the first step to transformation? Pause. Even if you don’t feel like pausing or are afraid to pause. Pause anyway. And see what’s wanting to bubble up.
